LeftWing Christians to Rally Against RightWing Christians. Jesus Wept

Left-wing political activist group "Red-Letter Christians" planning an anti-Trump/Falwell rally, calling it a revival.

One of the major objections to Christian support of Donald Trump that I (and many others) raised during the presidential campaign of 2016 was what it would do to the witness of the church in America. If we Christians belong to an eternal Kingdom, and if our singular priority in this life is to build that Kingdom, doing damage to the witness of the Church of Jesus has to be significantly concerning to me.

I feared what would happen if, in the eyes of the Western world, Christianity became synonymous with Trumpism. Mind you, it doesn’t have to. A Christian can fully support the good actions of President Trump while simultaneously condemning his weak character, shameful coarseness, and undisciplined retaliations. And that’s where many Christians who voted for Trump have settled these days – support what is good, reject what is bad.

The problem comes when significant, high profile Christians – whether that be Jerry Falwell, Jr. or Franklin Graham – remain unwilling to condemn the bad, even when it includes flagrant opposition to God’s Word. Take for instance Falwell’s embarrassing response when asked to condemn the President’s sexual affair with a porn star while his 3rd wife was pregnant, and then paid her off to keep her quiet: “we are all equally bad, we are all sinners.”

That’s both humiliating and irritating. We are not all equally bad. We all fall short of the glory of God, no question. But there’s a reason some will face harsher punishment in Hell than others. There’s a reason some will find higher places of glory in heaven.

But more to the point, the fact that any Christian leader cannot say unequivocally that cheating on your pregnant wife with a porn star and then trying to cover it up is wrong, is astounding. It is indicative of a mind more committed to political calculation than moral clarity. And that is extraordinarily dangerous for the church’s witness. Why?

First, because it cheapens the eternal message of salvation in Christ alone to a temporal political crusade. And second, because it opens the door for false teachers to mislead those left disillusioned by the church’s confusion.

I thought about that when I saw that the borderline heretical group Red Letter Christians (heretical because of their presumption that there is a higher Christian ethic to be found in merely embodying the “red letters” of Scripture over the fully inspired counsel of God’s Word) was preparing a political rally masked as a “revival” in Lynchburg, Virginia this April. Lynchburg is the home of the world’s largest Christian institution, Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s Liberty University.

Left-wing activist Shane Claiborne is leading the charge, which comes as no surprise to anyone who has read his regular anti-Falwell attacks that pepper his Twitter feed. And while there is much to fairly criticize about Falwell’s stewardship of the true message of Christ in our culture, it’s not as though a man like Shane Claiborne who:

refused to speak out for tortured children the same day he demanded mercy for human rights abusers

…it’s not as though that is the direction true Bible believers in America should gravitate either. After all, organizers of this Claiborne/Red Letter Christian event aren’t ambiguous about their agenda:

“In word, worship and witness, this ‘revival of Jesus and Justice’ will stand in stark contrast to the distorted Christian nationalism that many white evangelical leaders have become known for,” the statement reads in part. “It is a gathering for people of faith or no faith who are curious about Jesus and troubled by the state of evangelicalism in America.”

“Justice,” in case you’re wondering, isn’t a reference to eternal justification. You know, the kind Jesus was concerned about. No, this “justice” is social justice – the true religion of many progressive Christians who see government as God, and who substitute economic retaliation and reparation for the power of eternal redemption.

In other words, this event has all the makings of a political rally that condemns those wrapping Christianity in Trump-wing Republican politics, all while wrapping Christianity in left-wing progressive politics.

We only recognize the extreme grace it took for God to forgive us when we recognize just how desperately sinful we are. Falwell's evangelicalism underplays the awfulness of sin, thus cheapening grace. This sort of cheap-grace evangelicalism is an affront to God's glory, because it downplays how amazingly gracious and merciful He is to pardon even one of our sins, even more so, ALL of them. Any Christian who uses "grace" as an excuse to minimize the sinfulness of sin (or an excuse to go on practicing it) does NOT understand grace. A true experience of the grace of God motivates godly behavior, rather than more of the same sinful lifestyle. Read Romans 6 and Titus 2:11-15, if you think otherwise.

I understand your skepticism, even though I'm not a progressive. Lots of Christians vote Republican because the party is pro-life, but it is questionable whether they are actually accomplishing anything for the cause of life by doing so. How many unborn babies' lives have Republican politicians saved, during all the years they have been pro-life? Or are millions of unborn children still being slaughtered every year, in horrific Planned Parenthood abortion mills, under their watch? The latter is true, and Republicans can't accurately claim it's because the Left is in charge of Washington. It's not like they don't have both houses of Congress AND the White House right now, yet they still refuse to defund Planned Parenthood or even to keep attempting to do so. They may not have enough seats on the Supreme Court to get Roe v. Wade overturned, but they certainly COULD defund Planned Parenthood right now, if they were really serious about getting it done.

Some Republican politicians ARE truly pro-life and would like to act on it, but they are the minority. Far too many just seem to be using a pro-life stance as a way to keep getting re-elected. Based on their behavior since taking Washington back, I doubt they would actually be willing to destroy the abortion industry in this country, no matter how much opportunity they had to do so - because it would deprive them of the ONLY reason many evangelicals support them.

As a long-time conservative voter, who has watched Republican politicians do nothing about this issue for years, I have become convinced that the only effective way to save unborn babies' lives is by helping or funding crisis pregnancy centers - NOT through politics. After all, crisis pregnancy centers DO have a proven record of regularly saving unborn babies' lives, and politicians do not (no matter how pro-life they may be).

If evangelicals want to go on assuaging their consciences that they are rescuing unborn children by simply filling in a circle next to a politician's name on a ballot - EVEN WHEN that politician does nothing to save babies' lives - they can do so. But God takes issue with them looking the other way when the politicians do nothing - by pointing out that we have a moral obligation to actually save these lives:

"Deliver those who are being taken away to death,And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back.If you say, 'See, we did not know this,'Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts?And does He not know it who keeps your soul?And will He not render to man according to his work?" (Proverbs 24:11-12)

The Bible tells us that Jesus will judge those and that we are NOT to judge others. So I will continue to ask Him in prayer, who I should vote for to be the best of those that are running for office. Only He knows what they will do when they get into that office. If a brother goes astray, I will ask Jesus to lead me in helping this brother get back on track. But to demonstrate, NO. That is not Gods word. Let us spend our time being Jesus followers helping others to be Jesus followers.

"We are not all equally bad. We all fall short of the glory of God, no question. But there’s a reason some will face harsher punishment in Hell than others. There’s a reason some will find higher places of glory in heaven."

I have read in the Bible about Higher places of glory in heaven........but please show me where the Bible references harsher punishment in Hell than others. ?????

Many, who claim the moniker of "Progressive Christian," use Jesus. They remake Him in their own image. "Uncomfortable with the Jesus of the Bible? Try ours. It's the deeds, not the creeds...the here and now, not the hereafter...works not faith." They tell us what the words in red "really" mean. It's not the words in red that they whisper but the words in Alinsky's Rules for Radicals--"Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity." They should worry about justice...the kind they will confront when they kneel before Jesus at the Judgment Seat.